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Ireland goalkeeper Shay Given has enjoyed an indifferent time since his transfer from Newcastle nearly two and a half years ago. Given made an immediate impact following his signing for a reported £8 million and was a mainstay the following season until suffering a dislocated shoulder in April 2010. Then, Roberto Mancini surprised many when, at the start of this season, he picked young English keeper Joe Hart for the opening league fixture against Tottenham Hotspur. Hart has progressed at a phenomenal rate becoming a regular starter for both club and country and Given has been restricted to only four appearances for City; One in the Carling Cup and three in the Europa League.

Given was linked with numerous clubs in January but chose instead to stay put. But, with both Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur both rumoured to be interested in signing the 35 year old this Summer, is it time for the Irishman to move on?

Given has undoubtedly been one of the most consistent goalkeepers in the Premiership since he was first signed by Newcastle in 1997. He has gone on to make nearly 400 appearances in the Premier League alone and earned 110 caps for Ireland, seven of which came this season. But, the player himself has begun to admit that sitting on the bench is not helping his cause for club or country. At the age of 35 he should be at the peak of his powers and playing regular football.

But, Manchester City are able to offer Champions League football next year and will surely make some exciting signings this summer as they look to form a title challenge. Given himself will surely be tempted to stay at Eastlands and fight it out with Hart for the Number 1 jersey and get paid handsomely to do so.

But, displacing Hart will be no easy accomplishment. Mancini favours the Englishman over Given and he is fast becoming one of the best keepers in the league. Perhaps, therefore, he would be best moving on, but where would represent the best home?

Arsenal have been rumoured to be interested in Given for some time. Manuel Almunia is seemingly on his way out of the Emirates whilst Fabianski is either inconsistent of injured. Wojciech Szczęsny has had an impressive debut season but it still young and learning. Given could be just the man to aid Szczęsny’s development and bring some leadership to a back four that has appeared troubled since the departure of William Gallas. But, much of this will hinge on whether Wenger sticks to his rule regarding only offering one-year contracts to players over 32, particularly as Given signed a four and a half year deal at Manchester City.

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Fans of Tottenham appear to be losing patience with Heurelho Gomes and some of his errors have costs Spurts points. And, unlike Wenger,Harry Redknapp cannot resist a bargain and will sign a good player regardless of age. Spurs might not be able to offer the glamour of the Champions League next season but would provide Given with opportunity to be part of an exciting project at White Hart Lane under Redknapp.

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Admittedly both teams have performed under expectations this season and find themselves currently sitting in fourth and fifth place respectively. But, unlike at City, both would offer the opportunity of regular football in ambitious sides looking to make the next step up.

Arsenal have faltered in recent seasons but, with the right players and manager at the helm, most fans will agree another title challenge will come soon. And, whilst Spurs are yet to become Champions League regulars, their fantastic run to this year’s Quarter Finals shows the progress they have made under Redknapp and fans will hopefully get to see a resumption of their fine European performances in next year’s Europa League and beyond.

Blackpool boss Ian Holloway has admitted to being tactically out-thought by Alex McLeish, following his side's 2-0 reverse at Birmingham City.

Goals from Liam Ridgewell and Nikola Zigic gave the Blues their first win in seven league games, while the Seasiders are now just one point above the relegation places, having lost four of their last five games.

Holloway admitted:"I have learned a football lesson. We weren't prepared for what Birmingham did – the balance of their team was excellent and caused us some problems.

"I didn't know they were going to play that way and I didn't tell my team. They stopped our flowing movements and my lads didn't understand, I hadn't told them Birmingham could be doing that.

"Tactically we didn't tell them. It's not that I can't, course I can. I can coach anything. I wasn't anticipating them to do that.

"I want to play them tomorrow, when we play them again, we'll know they are capable of that.

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"I shall have a right good go at my scouting set-up because no-one told me Birmingham play a 4-diamond-2. I've seen them play 4-4-1-1, but that really scuppered us."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email

Fulham manager Martin Jol has admitted that his side have taken a risk by signing Pavel Pogrebnyak as Bobby Zamora’s replacement, as the Russian forward is out of form.

Pogrebnyak joined The Cottagers from Stuttgart on a six-month loan deal on transfer deadline day, as Zamora was sold to London rivals QPR.

The Dutch coach is aware that his new forward represents a gamble, but is hoping that Pogrebnyak can recapture the form that saw him shoot to fame in his earlier career.

“He’s not had a great couple of years, but if he had we wouldn’t have got him,” Jol told Mirror Football.

I spoke to (Russia boss) Dick ­Advocaat and (predecessor) Guus Hiddink about him and they told me he’s got 45 caps and he’s had some great spells.

“It’s a very good opportunity for him and us, but he has to prove it now,” the trainer challenged.

Pogrebnyak is currently waiting for a work permit for England, and hopes to make his Premier League debut for the Craven Cottage side against Stoke on Saturday.

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By Gareth McKnight

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Last week, Manchester City played Stoke City twice in a few days, in the FA Cup final and in the league. Everyone got on pretty well. City decided not to parade the FA Cup before or after the league game in respect to Stoke fans, we clapped their fans away and Delilah was played over the loudspeaker.All very nice, and message boards for both clubs contained many a thread praising the opposition fans, and mentioning a new-found respect after the carnage of our double relegation in 1998 when trouble after the final game (Manchester City won it 5-2, to no avail) was widespread.This new found respect and praise didn’t sit very well with some fans though. It just wasn’t football to be praising opposition fans, or to be getting on with them this much. Afterall, part of being a football supporter is to hate most other fans, and most of all, other clubs.It’s easy to hate. Obviously I am required by law as a City fan to hate everything about Manchester United. Older City fans hate Everton because of the commonplace violence in away games in the 80s.  And they always beat us. A (perceived) bad reputation of fans makes plenty of other teams easy to hate. Spurs and Arsenal fans are arrogant, Blackpool were fine until their manager’s tiresome press conferences and toadying up to Alex Ferguson (along with many other sycophants in the managerial game) began to hit home.Liverpool fans think their club is more important than anyone else’s, Newcastle fans think their fans are better.  I don’t like QPR now Warnock is their manager. Or West Ham now Gold and Sullivan are weaving their magic as owners. I hated Crystal Palace while Jordan was chairman.[ad_pod id=’unruly-2′ align=’right’]Don’t take all the above as my opinion – mere hyperbole to show how easy it is to take against clubs, as if it is almost frowned upon to like other clubs. Any little thing you can seize upon- one arrogant letter from an Arsenal fan on a website is enough for you to tar all Arsenal fans with the same brush.It’s a similar theme at matches. Ninety minutes of winding each other up and sneering (or more) outside. This seems to be a habit restricted to British clubs though – perhaps familiarity breeds contempt, but it’s a lot harder to really detest a foreign team. Though I am tempted to start hating Barcelona because everyone fawns over them so much. And because of Busquets of course.I hate Ipswich because their fans sneered when we got relegated once. I hate Luton because they relegated us in 1983 and David Pleat ran across the pitch. And because of those portakabins down the side of the pitch. God I hated them. I hate Portsmouth because they have a drummer and lots of bell ringing.And that’s the thing with irrational dislikes – football clubs are massive entities, with a large coaching and managerial staff, a large pool of players, a set of fans that can number millions and a proud history stretching back over a century, but it only takes one individual or one tiny detail at a club for me to take a dislike to them. Thus, whichever club Harry Redknapp is attached to I am duty-bound to hate. This is because of the spurious reasons of him having so many friends in the media he seems untouchable, and because he likes to talk about players in the press that he thinks are ‘triffic, perfectly illustrated when he unsettled Eyal Berkovic away from Manchester City many years ago. Time has not healed the wounds.Why do we take so easily to hating other teams? It doesn’t happen in other sports. Football is of course tribal, more now than it has ever been, and we mark our territory and stand our ground. We see everything through blinkers, and excuse our own team and fans whilst pouncing on the actions of others.  We can’t sit with opposition fans or we will kill each other. We can’t debate without prejudice, we can’t accept the opposition fans were louder, the opposition team were better, or that the penalty they got was a fair decision. And some rivalries are more deep-seated of course – splits caused by religious differences, historical rivalries between cities, but often nothing more than a fiery game three seasons previous.This is football, and part of what we love about it. It’s fine for me to hate Plymouth Argyle, because no one should play in green (ok, that’s pushing it a bit) . But my most irrational hatred of all concerns a tannoy system. A certain championship side, who shall remain nameless, once scored against City, and the PA system erupted to the sound of Tina Turner and “Simply The Best”.Surely a just reason to hate a whole club? I think so.

Blackburn Rovers boss Sam Allardyce blamed a defensive 'mess up' for Saturday's 1-0 defeat at Stoke City.

Matthew Etherington capitalised on defensive hesitation to feed Jonathan Walters and his strike settled a hard-fought encounter at the Britannia Stadium.

"The biggest frustration for me is the goal that we conceded here today," said Allardyce.

"It was such an easy defensive position to defend. We don't often see our central defenders mess it up like that to let what was a nothing situation develop into what was then a goalscoring situation which they took and it ended up being the winning goal.

"It is very frustrating to concede that type of goal at that particular time of the game.

"Goals are always difficult for us to come by, we know that, but we have scored in every game and if we had kept that going it would have gotten us a 1-1, but it hasn't happened.

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"Our deficiencies defensively have made it so easy for them to nip through and score, bog standard basic defending has let us down.

"We went the goal down, we changed the system we went to three at the back and switched to a 3-4-3. But we huffed and puffed really without creating a chance."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email

Chelsea threw away a three-goal lead against Manchester United on Sunday, as the Premier League champions showed their resolve to get a 3-3 draw at Stamford Bridge.

A Jonny Evans own goal after good work by Daniel Sturridge gave The Blues a 1-0 lead at half time, before a stunning volley from Juan Mata doubled their lead in the first minute of the second period.

Three points looked all by guaranteed when a David Luiz header took a deflection off Rio Ferdinand and beat David De Gea in the United goal, putting Chelsea three goals to the good.

However Sir Alex Ferguson’s men fought back courageously, with two Wayne Rooney penalties getting them within touching distance, and substitute Javier Hernandez heading home the equaliser with six minutes remaining.

Villa Boas was clearly frustrated by dropping two points, and questioned Howard Webb’s decision-making process in the second half.

“Of course, it’s not easy to take. A game where we were very positive and had the initiative for most of it,” the Portuguese coach told Sky Sports.

“It’s a massive recovery for United. It’ll feel like a win for them, of course. We had it in our hands and let it slip.

“There were some strange decisions today though. At Old Trafford we lost two goals that were offside and I see Sir Alex speaking about the linesman just after they recall him.

“These things just keep happening. The first one is a penalty and I agree with it. The second is very, very unlucky.

“I’m not sure if Howard is trying to compensate for something,” he concluded.

Meanwhile, despite staring defeat in the face, Ferguson feels that his side should have taken all three points and were the better team throughout.

“We had two penalties in the second half which were justified. I think we could have had four penalties.

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“It’s two points dropped to be honest with you. We played ever so well apart from the period directly after half-time when we lost two goals. I thought we were by far the better team,” he defied.

The result means United are two points adrift of cross-town rivals Manchester City at the Premier League summit, whilst Chelsea move a point closer to Tottenham in third for the time being.

By Gareth McKnight

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Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola has moved to play down speculation linking him with a move to Italy at the end of the season.Guardiola, 40, has been the subject of reports in the Italian press suggesting he could be set to coach in Serie A with either Inter Milan or Roma in 2011/12.

He spent three seasons in Italy as a player with Brescia and Roma and is believed to be interested in a return to the country at some point in the future.

But the former Spain international has announced his intention to at least fulfil his contract at Camp Nou, which runs until the end of the next season.

“I still have an ongoing contract with Barcelona. Inter are a great club but I’ll stay with my current club for an additional season,” Guardiola was quoted as saying in La Gazzetta dello Sport .

“Either way I’d never do anything without speaking to Barcelona president Sandro Rosell first.”

Blackpool manager Ian Holloway was disappointed with his side's first-half display as they crashed 4-0 at Premier League holders Chelsea.

The rampant Blues went ahead inside two minutes at Stamford Bridge as Salomon Kalou stabbed home from close range and Florent Malouda guided in Didier Drogba's centre soon after.

Drogba got his name on the scoresheet as his deflected effort wrong-footed Matt Gilks in the Seasiders' goal and another fine strike from Malouda added gloss to a sterling opening 45 minute display.

Carlo Ancelotti's team couldn't add to their tally in the second period and, although Holloway was pleased with the response, he was unhappy with the manner of their early capitulation.

"I thought we were absolutely useless first half, but they showed a champion's mentality from the first corner," said Holloway.

"And all our game plan went out the window after a minute or so. I was much happier with the second half but they took the foot off the gas.

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"We drew the second half and created a couple of chances but it was all about pride then, it was too late.

"We're all very proud people here and I thought we would have given them a much better game than that but sometimes you have to say how good they are."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email

There have been three returns to football in the last couple of weeks – we all know about the ‘return of the king’ in Henry, who both scored and swore in his first two games back, and the coming out of retirement of Paul Scholes which caused a mixture of despair and jubilation due to downright blinkered love of the player, yet there was a third return this week to one of the very top clubs in English football – or they used to be  – Michael Essien made his long awaited comeback for Chelsea in the match against Sunderland and how much under pressure AVB will have been looking forward to this.

For a side who once had one of the very best midfields in Europe – in fact one so good that even the masters that are Xavi and Iniesta could not embarrass them – unlike each and every time they have faced United – Chelsea are now in vast decline in that area – well in all areas, and the once prolific Lampard is ageing and inexplicably out of favour, and Raul Meireles although not a bad signing hardly a world beater, thus the return of Essien who when fit is one of the best midfielders in Europe is better than any signing Abramovich could have presented AVB with – remember this time last year and Torres!

Essien provides Chelsea with not only the physical presence but pace, sheer ability and endless running from box to box – hence his nickname ‘the train.’ Add to this the potential to get goals and memorable ones at that, and Chelsea could well have just welcomed back the player who could clinch them the fourth spot and final coveted Champion’s League place this season.

There are of course lingering questions over the fitness of Essien, and three serious knee operations in recent memory are far from ideal, especially when you compare this to players such as Owen Hargreaves who has sent more tweets than made appearances on the field due to similar problems, there is of course the risk that the injury will reoccur or Essien will not be the player he once was – it will be here that the presence of Ramires will help Essien, alleviating some of the pressure on the Ghanaian to be that ever present running box to box midfielder, especially in the early part of his comeback.

However, AVB and Chelsea fans will not focus on this, just the fact that they have a fantastic player back in their ranks when they need him most – the club may even feel a sense of satisfaction that it is now and not a month ago that Essien made his comeback – he now avoids having to go to the African Cup of Nations and Chelsea do not have to lose his services for the best part of two months.

The versatility of Essien will also be welcomed, and the player himself has been called ‘one of the very best players in the league’ by manager AVB and we all know how fussy he can be when it comes to liking his players. It would take a brave person to suggest that Essien will not make a difference to the Chelsea side, and despite his return being the least publicised, it could well end up being the most vital of them all.

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Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti hopes his team can move to within three points of Manchester United with a win at Tottenham on Saturday.During their disastrous dip in form over the winter months the West London club were 18 points behind United at one stage, but have clawed back the deficit and are in touching distances of the champions-elect.

However, Ancelotti is aware beating Harry Redknapp’s side will be no easy task, with the North London club battling for a Champions League place in an attempt to qualify for the competition for a second year in a row.

“I remember when we were losing to Manchester United in the first half of the season – the gap between us and them was 18 points – so to be three points behind will be fantastic,” Ancelotti said.

“They (Tottenham) are involved in the fight for fourth place and they will do everything against us to close the gap on Manchester City.”

Ancelotti has a full strength squad to choose from ahead of the weekend’s game and his team seem to be firing on all cylinders once again with an unbeaten run that stretches back to February.

The Italian will also be relieved that 50 million pound striker Fernando Torres finally broke his duck with a goal against West Ham last Saturday, and has praised the Spaniard for his work with fellow front-man Didier Drogba in training this week.

“They trained well and make a good combination together – it won’t surprise me if they both start on Saturday,” Ancelotti said.

“Both players have great skill and ability and are able to play together. They may have to sacrifice something though to both play but they will help the team reach the right results.”

Manchester United must travel to The Emirates on Sunday to try and grab what could be a title winning three points, though Ancelotti hopes that Arsenal can do his side a favour by beating Sir Alex Ferguson’s men.

“I think that Arsenal will do their best to win because they are a good team,” he said. “Manchester City are close behind them which will be a good motivation for them.”